The people in Minnesota will now have the chance to decide the future of marriage in their own state, thanks to the brave bipartisan group of legislators who voted to put a marriage amendment on the ballot in 2012.

The marriage amendment in Minnesota is simple and clear: "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota."

It takes the future of marriage out of the hands of activist judges, like those in neighboring Iowa who imposed same-sex marriage against the will of the people, and gives it to Minnesotans generally.

Already the angry campaign to label the good people of Minnesota who believe marriage is the union of husband and wife as haters, bigots, and worse has begun—and let me promise you that it will backfire.

Gov. Mark Dayton symbolically tried to "veto" the bill, slamming millions of Minnesotans by calling it a "mean-spirited, divisive, un-Minnesotan and un-American amendment."

Legislators who voted for the marriage amendment were slammed with thousands of emails generated by the Human Rights Campaign, calling them bigots and other hateful insults because, as Rep. Tony Cornish said, "From the start, right after my vote, I received e-mails calling me a 'bigot' and much much worse, describing in detail horrific things that I should do to my own body, and people talking about my 'obituary.' It wore on me, so about the 300th letter I got like that, I replied, 'Give it a rest!'"

Millions of good, loving and law-abiding Americans have voted to protect marriage as one man and one woman, including in nearby midwestern states like Wisconsin and Michigan, and in deep blue states like California and Maine. Just this spring, Democratic states like Rhode Island and Maryland have rejected same-sex marriage. Protecting marriage is not un-Minnesotan or un-American and no amount of name-calling or insults is going to change that reality. In fact, name-calling and insults will not be a pathway to victory in Minnesota, or anywhere else.

Take a look at NOM's just released video "People Need to Speak the Truth," interviewing folks who attended Sen. Diaz's rally for marriage in the Bronx.

"If we don't speak up for truth, people will believe a lie." Well, you and I won't let that happen, will we?

A reporter for a local news site interviewed people on the streets of Bed-Stuy, a Brooklyn neighborhood. "Most Bed-Stuy residents we spoke to were in favor of traditional marriage," according to the Bed-Stuy Patch:

Jason, a 26-year-old computer tech walking along Fulton Street back to work, concurred. "I don't care what the next man does, but God didn't intend for two men to get married nor two women. That just makes everything untraditional. After you pass same-sex marriage you're just throwing religion out the door."

"I don't believe in same-sex marriage, but to each their own. If that's what the people want to do... but I don't believe that it should be a law," said another Bed-Stuy resident who declined to give her name.

The truth is the movement for marriage is the most unlikely coalition ever, of Democrats and Republicans, of Catholics, Protestants and Jews, of people of every race, creed, color and party coming together to stand in love—against the torrent of hatred and abuse now directed against folks who dare to say marriage is and should remain, as God intended, a union of husband and wife.

Sen. Rev. Rubén Díaz's latest press release asks Gov. Cuomo, the media and the public to pay attention to the increasingly uncivil rhetoric which those who support gay marriage are heaping upon those with whom they disagree.

"I urge Governor Andrew Cuomo along with my colleagues in the legislature, the media, and all New Yorkers to take a close look at the hard core and vulgar tactics that are being used to change a law in New York State. I urge all to compare my non-violent, peaceful and prayerful rallies to protect marriage and the attempts to humiliate me because of my one vote in the State Senate. Add to that the intolerant onslaught of hate-filled phone calls to my office. Add to that to the death threats and threats against my family that have been duly reported to the FBI and the police departments of New York and Albany."

Leaders like Rev. Díaz are attracting this kind of abuse because they are making a difference, thank God!

Our great campaign for the truth about marriage is having a huge impact in New York, clearly, as we work with great people like Sen. Rev. Rubén Díaz, Rev. Jason Maguire and New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedom and many others.

A May 21 Associated Press story detailed the growing gloom among gay-marriage supporters in New York that a high-profile and well-funded push for gay marriage was falling short, as the latest polls show support for gay marriage dropping and opposition growing:

Just a couple of weeks ago, the momentum to legalize gay marriage in New York appeared to be an irresistible force. ...Since then, the conservative and religious opposition has struck back in a big, unexpected way.

Now the opposition has a $1.5 million fund of its own from a national group. There was even some shakiness in the ranks of gay marriage advocates, while Republican senators on the other side, rather than wilting, appear emboldened. ...

Opponents of gay marriage are also bolstered by defeats of similar bills this year in Maryland and Rhode Island. Same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C., a list unchanged since New York's Senate rejected the measure in 2009 in a surprising blow to the national movement. ...A month ago, support in the Siena poll was four points higher and opposition was six points lower. It was a rare setback in polls that for months have repeatedly shown growing support.

Yet another surprising victory against powerful elites when the pundits told us victory was impossible!

Many of you have written concerned about the latest Gallup poll. Gay-rights activists are trumpeting the idea that the majority of Americans now support gay marriage.

Let not your heart be troubled. Americans, faced with a barrage of abuse and insults, are becoming less willing to tell strangers on the phone what they really think. But it is impossible to square poll results like that with what is happening on the ground, in state polls, or in actual elections.

Equality California is now hesitating, unsure if it will try to repeal Prop 8 in 2012, as a result of this news.

If a majority of all Americans now favor gay marriage, why is it that in a very blue state like Washington, the latest poll shows people split almost evenly on the issue (and within the margin of error)?

If a majority of all Americans now favor gay marriage, why is it that in Ohio, a swing state, voters who were asked, "Do you you think gay marriage should be legal or or illegal?" responded "illegal" 53 percent to 31 percent?

Public Policy Polling has been doing state polls that are wildly out of synch with some of the national polls.

Now, many people criticize PPP's polling methods as leaning too Democratic. They also do not use live interviewers but ask people to respond by hitting their phone buttons. This may be one reason their polls show much stronger opposition to gay marriage: It's less intimidating for Democrats and Independents who oppose gay marriage to admit their views to a machine than to a person.

Not only do we at NOM not believe polls reporting a majority of all Americans now support gay marriage, but it is crystal clear that gay-marriage advocates don't believe those polls either.

How do I know this? Because in the deepest, bluest states in the nation, they would rather lose a gay marriage bill altogether than accept the idea that the issue should be referred to a popular vote. Rhode Island, the most Democratic state in the nation, was the clearest example of this.

If gay-marriage advocates don't believe they can win a majority vote on this issue in Rhode Island, they know they can't win it anywhere.

We'll find out in 2012 in Minnesota whose polling is the most accurate.

By the way, the fact that good people feel unsafe saying marriage is the union of husband and wife is a change that we need to face and find a way to deal with.

We at NOM are looking for new ways to protect decent and honorable people from threats to their livelihood and person if they speak for marriage.

We will need to come together in dramatic new ways to stop the abuse, the insults and the threats. But with your help and God's we will win this fight, too.

In January of this year, I became aware that we would have to suddenly fight hard on multiple fronts for marriage, and in the deepest blue states.

The fights have strained our resources. Each one was supposed to be impossible to win. And yet we've won each time—thanks to you.

Thanks in part to NOM's work in the elections of 2010, there were also some new opportunities—votes for marriage in Indiana and Minnesota are just the beginning.

Thank you and praise God for your support—for your emails, for your prayers and for your fellowship.

Thank you for your courage and your decency. Thank you above all for standing with us and with millions of other good Americans for marriage.

Take care and keep those emails coming!

Semper fi,

Brian S. Brown
President
National Organization for Marriage

P.S.. The fight is not over—we have just begun! We will fight and we will win, but we need your help. Be a part of the next victory for marriage! Your donation to NOM will help make those victories possible. We can't do it without you.